Mr. Popo

Mr. Popo (ミスター・ポポ Misutā Popo) is a character and deity in the Dragon Ballmetaseries by Akira Toriyama. He is an immortal genie who tends the grounds of Kami's Lookout and is bound there eternally as the gardener and caretaker. He uses a magic carpet for Instant Transportation.

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Though he may not appear to physically age, Mr. Popo is very old; having served Kami, the Guardian of Earth for hundreds of years, he also served Kami's predecessor, as well as every other guardian of the Earth in the past. Being the loyal and faithful servant that he is, his purpose consists mainly of tending to Kami’s Palace, keeping the Lookout clean, helping to reconstruct Shenron if needed, and most importantly, taking care of Kami. He also tends to the ancient butterfly garden that he planted thousands of years ago, and enjoys the more simple things in life. While Funimation’s English dubbed Mr. Popo speaks complete, highly sophisticated sentences, the Japanese version proves him to be a seemingly primitive figure. His grasp of the common tongue is less than the English-dubbed version makes it out to be, and in addition, the Japanese version has him commonly referring to himself in the third person, which is done in the English version too as well as in the video game Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi.

Although his skill as a martial artist is not shown frequently, Mr. Popo is an excellent martial arts master. When he is introduced in Dragon Ball, he is far stronger than Goku when the two meet at the Lookout. He trains Goku for three years until the young warrior learns everything he knows, and enters the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament to defeat Piccolo Jr. with his newly attained abilities. Some of the techniques Goku developed in his three-year training later proved valuable; such as the Super Kamehameha, a more lethal version of the trademark attack.

Mr.Popo appears again in the Cell sagas where he lead Goku, Gohan, Trunks, and Vegeta to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber for a year of training in one day. Later he observes the Cell games on The Lookout with the new guardian of the earth Dende.

In Majin Buu story arcs, Mr. Popo comes up with the idea of having Trunks and Goten do the fusion dance after everyone else runs out of other ideas. The family and friends of the Z Fighters take refuge from Majin Buu on Kami's Lookout until Buu finds the tower. When Buu escapes from the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, Mr. Popo and the rest are turned into chocolate and eaten. Popo is later revived and gives his energy to help Goku make the Spirit Bomb to destroy Kid Buu.

When Goku first reaches Kami's Lookout in the anime filler, he encounters Mr. Popo seated on a Persian rug (likely the same one he uses to fly with in Dragon Ball Z) and with what appears to be a light fog covering him and birds on his shoulders. After they greet each other and battle, Goku puts up a good fight against the genie and attempts a Kamehameha wave at him, only to have it literally swallowed by him in return. Goku then tries to defeat Mr. Popo by using the "punch that beat King Piccolo", only to have him evade it with no difficulty.

During the Majin Buu Saga, he has a brief match with Goten and Trunks in Super Saiyan form, respectively. During the fight, he blocks several hits and even dodges a kick. After Trunks manages to kick him once, he appears uninjured; proving him a far stronger character than others assume he is. This, however, only ever occurred in an anime filler, and would be rather irrational for one to take as fact.

Mr. Popo has a very small role in Dragon Ball GT. In the first episode, he prepared to restore the Lookout after Goku and Uub finished their intense training and damaged the place almost entirely. He remains as a background character for most of the show. He is last seen during the flashback montage sequence in the final episode.

To some, Mr. Popo is claimed to be a variant of darky iconography, a "racist" style of caricature. On May 4, 2000, an article written by children's book author Carole Boston Weatherford claimed that Mr. Popo, along with the Pokémon #124, Jynx, were derogatory stereotypes because of the black skin, big lips, and for Mr. Popo, the lack of teeth. In 2004, Viz began to downsize Mr. Popo's large lips digitally in the American release of the manga. Pokemon had changed Jynx's face and hands to purple.

This is the ability to fly using one's ki. Mr. Popo can quickly control his energy and push ki out from underneath him allowing him to fly or levitate in the air with ease.

Magic Materialism A magical ability used to create objects from seemingly thin air. Mr. Popo can bring out a rolled-up ball of carpet from nowhere and throws it upon the ground which, instead of actually touching the floor, opens up in mid-air and becomes his magical flying carpet.

Instantaneous Movement Unlike the Instant Transmission, he can transport instantly to a desired location on Earth without requiring the use of an energy signature to home in on. He is first seen using this technique when he transported with Bulma on his flying carpet to Yunzabit Heights, which was the region where Kami's old spaceship crash-landed and needed to be restored.